Cost-aware cache replacement

Abstract

Systems and methods relate to cost-aware cache management policies. In a cost-aware least recently used (LRU) replacement policy, temporal locality as well as miss cost is taken into account in selecting a cache line for replacement, wherein the miss cost is based on an associated operation type including instruction cache read, data cache read, data cache write, prefetch, and write back. In a cost-aware dynamic re-reference interval prediction (DRRIP) based cache management policy, miss costs associated with operation types pertaining to a cache line are considered for assigning re-reference interval prediction values (RRPV) for inserting the cache line, pursuant to a cache miss and for updating the RRPV upon a hit for the cache line. The operation types comprise instruction cache access, data cache access, prefetch, and write back. These policies improve victim selection, while minimizing cache thrashing and scans.